AMERICA'S FIRST SETTLERS, THE INDIANS
mony itself. Whereupon the entire affair
concluded with a feast.
The fabric of the Indian's religion was
woven about his intimate observations of
Nature. Each day he saw the sun rise in
the east and set in the west, obliterating
the stars which guarded the heavens at
night.
He noticed the regularity of the waxing
and waning of the moon. He watched the
procession of the equinoxes with the ac
companying complex phenomena of the
seasons.
With the seasons were correlated the
regular migrations of animals, birds, and
fish, and the annual cycles in the growth
of plants and trees. With the seasons came
heat and cold, rain and sunshine, lightning,
wind, and snow.
At times Nature was lavish with her
favors; frequently she denied man his
wants. Now and then disease struck with
unseen weapons and laid him low.
All of these things required explanation
so that man might know how to produce
more favors from Nature and render his
existence more tolerable.
Lacking knowledge of physics, astron
omy, and meteorology, the Indian gave
anthropomorphic existence to the various
striking features of Nature.
The adventures of these supernatural be
ings with Indian culture heroes form the
intricate substance of a rich mythology
wherein are explained, often in allegorical
language, all things about which the Indian
has pondered.
Apparently all American Indians ob
served the solstices and used them as a
basis for dividing the year. The alterna
tion of day and night and the changes of
the moon were noticed and employed as
units for measurement of time.
The year was separated into seasons in
accordance with conspicuous natural phe
nomena or seasonal developments which
were significant to the Indian and which
affected his manner of life.
A FIVE-SEASON CALENDAR
A typical time division among eastern
tribes was to separate the year into five
units marked by the budding of spring, the
maturing of maize, the summer, or "high
sun" time, leaf-falling time, and winter,
the time of snow and cold.
Among the Iroquois, the alternation of
the seasons symbolized the perpetual strug-
gle between the Life God and "Stony Coat,"
the god of ice and winter, whose function
was to destroy.
The division of the seasons naturally
differed with the latitude and the mode of
life of the Indians.
Agricultural tribes
stressed different phenomena from those
that the hunting or gathering tribes did.
Even among agricultural people the en
vironment largely determined which as
pects of Nature were most important. Rain
was much more significant to the Pueblo
Indians of arid Arizona and New Mexico
than it was to the Iroquois.
The sprouting of seed; the growth and
death of annual plants; the blossoming,
leafing, fruiting, and shedding of trees; the
migrations and mating periods of animals,
birds, and fish-all were used to mark the
march of the seasons.
Temporal conceptions were steeped in
religion, the various seasons were associated
with particular deities, and these in turn
frequently were associated with the four
directions, or six directions in the case of
many groups who added "up" and "down"
to the cardinal points.
FACES WHICH KILL OR CURE
Among the American aborigines were
many secret societies and groups which ap
peared in public only in elaborate masks
and costumes in which they represented
various deities, some of the powers of which
they were supposed to acquire by virtue of
this sacred paraphernalia.
A characteristic organization among the
Iroquois, frequently mentioned by early
travelers, was the Society of Faces, which is
still active (Color Plate XII).
The imagination of the Indian peopled
the forest and the lakes with strange beings.
Hunters having experiences which seemed
odd to them attributed the events to en
counters with weird semihuman "faces,"
which occasionally appeared to them in
dreams.
These faces were supposed to possess the
power of curing various diseases. The man
who dreamed of a face was instructed in
his dream to carve a likeness of it to be
worn as a mask, thus making him a healer
while wearing it and singing the proper
curing songs.
If the faces were not treated respectfully
and given occasional offerings of tobacco
and ashes, they would produce the diseases
they could cure.
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